Runway Entry Awareness System Using Virtual Hold-Short Gates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Runway incursions due to human errors such as poor visibility, fatigue, misunderstood air traffic control clearances, or distractions still occur despite existing airport signs and taxiway markings, highlighting the need for enhanced pilot awareness during ground operations.
Innovation Solution
An aircraft-based system that includes a memory device for storing airport information, a processing device to determine pilot intent and aircraft position, and an output device to generate and display hold-short gates as still images or animations, providing visual, aural, or tactile alerts when it is not safe to access a runway or taxiway, thereby enhancing pilot awareness and preventing incursions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If airport signs and taxiway markings are used to provide positional awareness, then pilots receive basic navigation information, but human errors due to poor visibility, fatigue, or distractions still occur leading to runway incursions
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a virtual copy of the airport environment including runways, taxiways, and hold-short lines that overlays or supplements the physical airport signage. This virtual representation provides continuous positional feedback without requiring pilots to constantly scan physical signs, reducing cognitive load and improving awareness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary layer between the pilot and the physical airport environment. This intermediary system processes sensor data, compares it with the airport database, and presents processed positional information to the pilot, filtering out distractions and highlighting critical information.
2Ease of operation
If virtual hold gate animations are activated based on aircraft proximity and heading, then pilots receive visual cues about hold-short lines, but the system complexity increases with multiple activation conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates and stores airport geometry data including hold-short line locations and orientations in a database before flight operations. During flight, the system simply queries this pre-processed data based on current aircraft position, avoiding complex real-time geometric calculations and reducing computational complexity.
3Ease of operation
If the virtual hold gate fades in as the aircraft approaches and fades out when the aircraft stops, then pilots receive dynamic visual feedback, but the system requires continuous monitoring of aircraft position and speed
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where the virtual hold gate's visibility dynamically responds to the aircraft's approach to the hold-short line. As the aircraft nears the hold line, the gate fades in to provide visual warning; when the aircraft stops or turns away, the gate fades out. This feedback loop uses simple threshold-based logic rather than complex continuous monitoring.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for providing runway entry awareness and alerting. An exemplary system includes a processing device that determines pilot intent based on one of a manual runway selection, automatic runway selection, aircraft information received from one or more sensors or received clearance information; receives at least one of aircraft position or motion information; determines if a no access condition exists based on the received information, the stored airport information and the determined pilot intent; and generates at least one of a hold-short gate still image or animation, if the no access condition exists.